In perhaps one of the more shocking recent announcements, Mike Bithell (of Thomas Was Alone, Volume fame) has confirmed that he’s working on a John Wick game. John Wick Hex isn’t your typical action title though – it’s a fast paced action strategy game. It’s out on PC via the Epic Games Store first, and will come to consoles later.

The trailer below gives a very rough idea of the gameplay.  The description provided of this being essentially “fight-choreographed chess brought to life as a video game” probably doesn’t do it either. Regardless, you’ll have to carefully select each action, with the consequences becoming immediately apparent. You even need to be careful about how much ammo is in each clip. Don’t want to reload at the worst time, right?

With a different story from the films, John Wick Hex provides new weapons and suits to unlock as players progress. You’ll explore new locations as well, with everything coated in a “graphic noir art” style. You can even expect actors like Ian McShane and Lance Reddick to lend their voices, though Keanu Reeves’ involvement is currently unknown. Check out the trailer below courtesy of IGN.

Mike Bithell’s Volume will be receiving a free expansion called Coda in 2016 for the PlayStation VR. The expansion will take place after the events of the first game and puts you in the role of The Troubleshooter, who has been hired by the core antagonists following Robert Locksley’s heists and revolution.

Volume: Coda will feature quite the array of new features including new voice actors and characters. The game will employ VR mechanics and it seems that players will also be able to experience the original campaign in VR as well. User generated levels and curated Staff Picks levels will also be playable.

The base game has done very well since its launch – it was reviewed positively and just received the Checkpoints update on PS4 which adds even more modes and leaderboards focused on stealth.

Volume: Coda will be out next year with the launch of PlayStation VR. What are your thoughts on exploring the VR levels through the use of actual VR tech? Let us know below.

Broadcasting these traipses from the Volume is a dangerous endeavor though as Gisborne’s forces are quickly descending on Rob through the course of the game. Even if Rob himself isn’t in danger during these simulations, he’s by no means safe. There are also the moral ramifications of his crusade. In order to ensure the collapse of the current society, is Rob justified in empowering people to become criminals? What about risking their own safety in the process? Is he really stealing from the rich and giving to the poor or pushing his own ideals on the world, much like Gisborne has?

"It’s to creator Mike Bithell’s credit that he’s created both a compelling world and history from scratch along with an utterly ingenuous level of progression in the game’s 100 campaign levels."

In the midst of these compelling ideas – Let’s Play walk-throughs and Metal Gear Solid-like overhead stealth and sneaking combined with clean, Biodigital Jazz visuals that range from cool blue to burning orange – Volume is still a very easy game to get into. When conducting simulations, Rob will have to sneak past guards, collect jewels to open up the exit and then safely leave. Since guards can’t be killed, Rob must instead rely on various means to distract and sneak past them. In the beginning, this is possible through the use of sounds like whistling or leaving a tap on to attract their attention.

Later, you’ll find more sophisticated tools like a ricocheting projectile which can be detonated to trigger sounds in otherwise inaccessible areas; a gleaming oddity which catches a guard’s attention for a certain period of time; and even a noise-cancelling, speed boost which helps you bypass pressure-sensitive plates later. The guards won’t make it easy, of course – as you graduate from stationary and patrolling guards to guard dogs and turrents, you’ll have to make well-timed and split-second decisions in order to succeed.

It’s to creator Mike Bithell’s credit that he’s created both a compelling world and history from scratch along with an utterly ingenuous level of progression in the game’s 100 campaign levels. Considering the fact that each level is essentially made of blocks and tiles, each stage feels unique and special in its own right. The difficulty is slowly ramped up as new mechanics and combinations of such are thrown together. Whether it’s a new tool, a new enemy type or even an intriguing new plot development, Volume sustains your attention without overloading you with information.

"Enemies have a fixed field of vision and won’t investigate anything outside of it. It also doesn’t help that guards upon being alerted will give up looking for you if you’re outside of their vision for a few seconds."

The story itself is presented through in-mission conversations and you’ll discover various notes throughout the simulation regarding the history of Gisborne Industries, its employees and the various Volume AIs that were created. One can appreciate this mix of story and lore – especially in the witty interactions between Alan and Rob or Gisborne’s menacing speeches (as portrayed flawlessly by Andy Serkis). Whether you want to learn more about the game’s back-story and setting throughout missions or simply run through the simulations, you’re always intrigued about what happens next. While there is certain romanticism to Rob’s actions, it’s certainly not all black and white and the plot serves to convey this well.

Volume isn’t flawless though. While in-mission conversations covering up vital parts of the screen as you play are annoying – and the only alternative is to wait for them to finish, wasting seconds on your completion time – there are other issues that serve to unbalance the game. For instance, enemies have a fixed field of vision and won’t investigate anything outside of it.

Even if you move beside them, they won’t react at all if you’re outside their FOV. Which is fine in a simulation but aren’t real people imitating these actions in the real world? Story nags aside, from a gameplay perspective, it does serve to break the sense of tension one could feel. It also doesn’t help that guards upon being alerted will give up looking for you if you’re outside of their FOV for a few seconds.

"Whether you’re looking for an intriguing story to sink your teeth into, a challenging stealth puzzler or just in the mood for something low-fi, complete with an awesome soundtrack, Volume is well worth looking into."

Then there is the generous littering of checkpoints and while we have nothing against them in theory, in Volume they can be used to simply rush through some sections or escape narrowly. This is because every time you hit a checkpoint and are caught, it immediately spawns you there. So if you happen to run past a difficult instance and hit the checkpoint by the skin of your teeth, you’ll respawn there with guards reset to their original locations. Again, this only negates the overall challenge of some instances and cheapens certain runs.

Overall though, Volume is an excellent mix of stealth, puzzle solving, story-telling and atmospheric visuals. Even if you breeze through the campaign, which takes several hours, there are already a number of user-created levels available to try out. A special section with recommended levels is also available and with the level creator, it’s possible to craft your own insane simulation for the world to conquer.

Volume may not have the advantage of a big budget and bleeding edge realism in its visuals. And heck, for a stealth game, it’s no Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain when it comes to size, scale and whatever else one cares to measure it by. But it has tons of heart, class and a compelling gameplay model that can be both challenging and fun, despite its unevenness at times. Volume isn’t perfect but when it’s good, it’s really good. Whether you’re looking for an intriguing story to sink your teeth into, a challenging stealth puzzler or just in the mood for something low-fi, complete with an awesome soundtrack, Volume is well worth looking into.

This game was reviewed on PC.

After numerous delays, Mike Bithell’s stealth title Volume is finally available on PS4 and PC. It’s already garnering positive feedback from critics and you can pick it up at a 10 percent discount on Steam. The PS Vita version was announced to have been delayed by a few weeks.

Volume is phenomenally different from Bithell’s earlier indie platformer Thomas Was Alone. It focuses on Robert Locksley and acts as a futuristic version of Robin Hood with the former committing numerous heists. The objective is to sneak through levels without being spotted, evading guards in the process and using various tools to distract them. Unlike, say, Metal Gear Solid you won’t have any way to dispose of the guards.

Volume also features a level editor which lets players share their own “heists” with each other. What are your thoughts on the game finally releasing? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Though it skipped 2014, indie stealth title Volume looks set for release this year. Creator Mike Bithell has been doling out information on the same and there’s also a new trailer showcasing the game’s different enemies. Check it out above along with some voice work by Andy Serkis who voices the protagonist Guy Gisborne.

Described as “Metal Gear Solid meets LEGO”, Volume is the next big-name game from the man behind Thomas Was Alone. It’s actually a retelling of the story of Robin Hood and incorporates the entire Let’s Play culture of gaming into its storyline of thievery. There isn’t much else we know about the game except that it will be coming to PS4, PS Vita, PC and Mac.

What are your thoughts on Volume, especially with the creative approach it’s taking to the stealth genre? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

GamingBolt recently caught up with Mike Bithell to know more about his inspiration behind developing the original game, the indie development scene, thoughts on the new consoles, and much more. Check out the full interview below.

For those who are not aware, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into the games business?

My name is Mike Bithell, and I’m a game designer. I started in the games industry fresh out of University, working as a junior designer at a company called Blitz Games about seven years back. I worked my way up the ranks, while fiddling with hobby games in my spare time. Thomas Was Alone was one of those projects, one that got a little out of hand.

Although the game is available for almost two years now, can you tell our readers what was the inspiration behind bringing Thomas Was Alone to new consoles?

The most surprising aspect of the game’s ongoing success is how it keeps finding new audiences with each new platform we bring it to. Each time it finds a bunch of players who’ve not tried it before, and that’s exciting to see. Bringing the game to WiiU and XB1 certainly aims to find new players who maybe don’t own the Sony consoles, and the PS4 release is a way of letting players who already own the game on PS3 take it on to their new system. It’s fun to be able to deliver the game to players this way.

"Thomas Was Alone was the natural outcome of me looking at the last thousand pounds in my bank account and making the game I could afford."

Having said that, do you think players who have already played it, will they feel intrigued enough to pick it up again on the new consoles?

I get a lot of tweets from folks saying they’ve bought it a few times. That baffles me, but I’m immensely grateful. It seems that folks want the game on their system of choice, and also like gifting it to friends, we see a lot of people gifting it at Christmas. All that support just empowers us to keep bringing the game to new audiences, while funding Volume’s dev.

I found the game’s baseline to be pretty strong. A game that takes place in a computer mainframe, wherein artificial intelligence routines have run out of control. How much brainstorming did you do to think something out the box like that?

I went through a bunch of story context ideas for the game. I knew it was about friends, but I didn’t know where they were for a very long. When I decided on the abstract aesthetic, really went for that rectangle stuff, it felt like AI was a nice justification for those in the audience who didn’t share my love of minimalism. I also liked the idea of an AI origin story which felt more human than skynet.

Looking back now, if you had the funding of a AAA game how much different do you think Thomas Was Along would have been?

I wouldn’t have made it! Thomas Was Alone was the natural outcome of me looking at the last thousand pounds in my bank account and making the game I could afford. It has, well, it’s been a pretty fantastic return on that investment.

"If you already own the game on PS3 or Vita, you can absolutely pick it up from where you left off on your PS4."

Can you describe some of the other graphical and content updates that new versions will have?

It’s pretty much identical to previous versions. Slapping a bunch of new effects on the game would not really improve it, and would likely do damage to the simplicity we created.

Are there any plans to support cross buy and cross save across the PlayStation platforms?

Not just plans, actual, awesome reality. Yes, we wanted to deliver that for our players, and we have. If you already own the game on PS3 or Vita, you can absolutely pick it up from where you left off on your PS4.

How difficult is to be an indie developer compared to AAA? What kind of challenges does an indie comes across?

All game dev is difficult, and honestly, I’ve found indie much freer than working within big companies. The numbers just have a couple less zeroes. I love the wearing of many hats, the variety in my working days. It’s all a lot of fun.

From an indie support point of view, what are your thoughts on Sony’s indie policy against Microsoft’s?

I think both MS and Sony are doing a great deal to improve their routes to platform.. knocking down walls. I’m incredibly excited to see TWA spreading across both platforms.

"[On a possible sequel] I'll definitely do it if I ever think of a story or gameplay idea that suits it."

Having worked on both the new consoles, what is your opinion on them? Are they pretty close to each other?

We’re at a point where we’re talking about, effectively, two PCs plugged into TVs. The spec differ in a bunch of ways, but yeah, they’re in the same ballpark. Thanks to the rise of middleware like Unity, cross platform dev means not having to worry too much about the little differences.

Can you tell us how is the Wii U version shaping up and how are you using the GamePad?

Yeah, it looks great on WiiU, works really well. We’re not doing too much platform specific gimmickry, but it’s fun to play on the gamepad, that’s a nice screen to play on, with those tactile controls.

Are there any plans to release a sequel? Given the game’s success I am sure you must have at least given a thought about it.

I’ll definitely do it if I ever think of a story or gameplay idea that suits it. I think a simple rehash would be a waste of everyone’s time, but if something comes to mind, sure.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we take off?

Only to please, keep buying my games. They are fun, and rectangley. And next year, Volume is out.. which should be.. fun.

Mike Bithell’s Thomas Was Alone, a flash game turned PC game turned PS3/Vita game, is now going to be on the Wii U and Xbox One alongwith the PS4. Curve Digital will be bringing the game out on the two extra consoles and they’ll release in November. A rather odd “Making of” video has been released by the studio explaining the process behind convincing Bithell to create a Thomas Was Alone for Wii U and Xbox One. Check it out above.

Thomas Was Alone was also handled by Curve Studios on the PS3 and Vita, witnessing a moderate amount of success. It supports cross-buy across all PlayStation platforms, so if you own it on either the PS3 or Vita, you’ll be able to play it on the PS4 as well.

Bithell is also currently working on Volume, a “Metal Gear Solid meets LEGO” game scheduled for Mac OS X, PC, PS4 and Vita in 2015.

Indie platformer Thomas Was Alone, which originally started out as a Flash title for PC, has gone on to sell over 1 million units in its lifespan. This is according to creator Mike Bithell on Twitter.

“Ummm.. so… yeah.. Thomas Was Alone has now sold over one million copies.”

Bithell did make sure to clarify that many of those sales came via special deals and whatnot. “Note: bulk of those sales were in bundles / discounts / promotions. So stop your 1mil x $10 maths right now.”

But it’s still a significant milestone all the same. Thomas Was Alone has made its way to the PlayStation 3 and Vita in the meantime and currently Bithell is busy developing Volume for the PS4, PC and Vita. Volume looks to combine stealth action with LEGO-style level customization. It also looks incredibly snazzy – there’s a chance it could slip into next year though. Stay tuned for more details on Volume in the coming months.

Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell has been working on his next big game Volume – a futuristic combination of Metal Gear Solid and LEGO which sees a thief conquering challenges and sharing his results with the world. While the game was targeted for release this year on PS4, PS Vita and PC, Bithell still feels that it could release in early 2015 as well.

In conversation with DigitalSpy, Bithell stated that, “[2014 is] the plan. But honestly, I’m feeling it might well slip now into the start of next year. I won’t release it until it’s ready, and I don’t need to either, which is nice.”

Right now, the development team will look to “play it by ear.” It could essentially release in either year at this point. But judging from the lack of details in as many months, we wouldn’t be surprised if it did release in 2015. Stay tuned for more information as it arrives.

Thomas Was Alone and Volume creator Mike Bithell recently spoke to Gamasutra about the success of his first game. According to Bithell, Thomas Was Alone really saw success when it came to the PlayStation platforms and that Sony is quickly edging Steam out in terms indie game curation.

Bithell explained that in the old days, “Steam meant you were going to be sorted, as long as your game was quite small, you’d be sorted for a year or two, bare minimum.

“I struggle to believe that Thomas Was Alone would have been successful were it to come out now on Steam. It was on the front page of Steam for a week. It was released right before that final moment where being on Steam meant Valve thought you made a great game. That used to be what that meant. I guess it’s not dissimilar to the Nintendo seal of approval they have on the boxed games.”

But when Greenlight debuted, it made the platform all the more open – which might eventually be the direction that Valve takes. “I think that’s what’s coming – something like the App Store, with very simple checks to make sure you’re not uploading a virus, and that’s it.

“Steam meant something at one point, and being on Steam said something to players that allowed a lot of people with weird, esoteric games to get an audience. That’s going to be harder to find now. You’ll require more traditional marketing and talking to press.

As for Sony, Bithell states that, “I think they’re working towards making it as easy as possible to make games for their platforms, which is a great plan. Same with Microsoft.

“But for now with those curated shops, you’ve got people like Shahid [Ahmad, Sony UK] saying ‘I like that game, I want it on the console.’ Which is going to benefit people in the short-term because it’s a badge of honour, and if you’re a PlayStation fan who likes the indie games that are out on PlayStation, you’re going to say ‘If Sony think this new game is good enough for their console, it’s good enough for me.’ And that’s very powerful.”

Volume is Bithell’s next game and will be out on PC and PS4. Stay tuned for more details.